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Static.Hotjar.com “Malware” Removal

Edmend Stewart

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Welcome to our Static.Hotjar.com “Malware” removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

What we are going to be focusing on today are some of the most bothering online annoyances you may come across while in the web world. The term used to refer to them is browser hijacker and we’ve received recent reports about one newly released such hijacker called Static.Hotjar.com “Malware” that has recently been bothering a number of users. In brief, what characterizes such products is their ability to affect all the browsers that you might use – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or any other. The ways in which hijackers may affect these browsing programs are the following: your usual browser homepages/search engines could get replaced by some unknown ones; also – your search requests might get redirected to strange websites; to top it all – a big number of unwanted ads might appear your screen regardless of what site you are currently on. All that could sound quite dangerous, but in fact hijackers are not among the actual harmful software threats so there’s no reason to be too worried about Static.Hotjar.com. Just keep on reading and you will find out what needs to be done.

Hijackers in general

When we are talking about browser hijackers, we should include the fact that they are also known as browser redirects. These are typically supposed to only affect your browser and maybe some of your Internet settings. No other component of your system would normally be affected or modified because of the presence of any redirect there. The possible effects on your browsers have been briefly mentioned above – replacement of your previous search engine, quite a lot of advertisements popping up on your screen, changed front page and/or new-tab page, some page redirection could also be possible.

If you are wondering what’s the reason behind such an obstructive behavior coming from otherwise legitimate pieces of software, the answer is simple. Such redirects are products that help the advertising industry. It is likely that their developers get paid substantially by the marketing industry to come up with means of online advertising.

Although the behavior of most hijackers/browser redirects might be bothering, they are typically not considered to be harmful. We could say that redirects such as Static.Hotjar.com do not resemble any actual form malware and are not as dangerous as real viruses – Trojans, Ransomware, Worms, Rootkits, etc. While the usual forms of malicious software such as Trojans and Ransomware could seriously damage something on your PC or ask for your money for unlocking your data files, browser hijackers are not known to have such terrible features.

Static.Hotjar.com “Malware” and its functions:

Logically, as a standard browser redirect, Static.Hotjar.com could typically only have marketing-related functions. It could redirect your searches or shower you with undesired web-based advertisements in many forms. It could modify your browsers  so that new homepages and search engines replace your old ones. However, we have not heard of any really damaging consequences that might come as a result of Static.Hotjar.com.

Possible ways of catching a page redirect:

There are many possible ways of ending up “infected” by a page redirect. Nonetheless, the most usual way of catching a hijacker such as Static.Hotjar.com is via installing a software bundles without paying attention to the setup menu.

What is a software bundle?

Any freeware or shareware that comes together bundled with other software could be described as a bundle – these software packages could be found everywhere on the Internet. They are distributed by the people who are interested in popularizing their products and making them reach more customers. Still, inside them, there could be an Adware or a browser hijacker. If you are wondering why and whether that is illegal, the answer is normally no since, although you might not have noticed the added hijacker, its installation would have still been authorized by you.

Installing any program/bundle correctly and avoiding the possible advertising software inside it

To carry out a successful and proper installation process, simply mind the option of the installer that you select. What you need to choose usually comes with the name “Custom” or sometimes “Advanced”, and less often – “Manual”. No matter which of these options is displayed, select it as they are the ones that would give you control over which of the bundled applications would get installed on your PC alongside the main program and which would be left out.

Removing Static.Hotjar.com:

You should have no difficulty doing that if you stick to the instructions below – we have created a Removal Guide containing all the needed tips and steps for successfully uninstalling this hijacker.

Static.Hotjar.com “Malware” Removal

I – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

  1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
  2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

II – Uninstallation

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  1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
  2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
  3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall

If you are unable to spot Static.Hotjar.com, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

III – Cleaning all your browsers

  1. Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
  2. Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
  3. Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.
  1. Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
  2. Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
  3. Now, in the left pane, go to Extensions and look through all extensions that are integrated within your browser. If you notice any suspicious add-on, disable it and then remove it.
  1. Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
  2. Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name Static.Hotjar.com on them.
  1. Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
  2. Click on all add-on types from the left pane and check if there is anything suspicious in the right panel. In case you find anything shade, make sure to remove it.

IV – Removing Shady processes

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  1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
  2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name Static.Hotjar.com might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
  3. If you spot the process ran by Static.Hotjar.com, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.

V – DNS check

  1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
  2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
  3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
  4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
  5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
  6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.
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